American Experience: The Circus This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Drawing upon a vast and rich visual archive, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era w...

American Experience: The Circus This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Drawing upon a vast and rich visual archive, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era when Circus Day could shut down a town, and circus stars were among the most famous people in the country. For many Americans, the circu...American Experience: The Circus This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Drawing upon a vast and rich visual archive, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era when Circus Day could shut down a town, and circus stars were among the most famous people in the country. For many Americans, the circus embodied the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular. Through the intertwined stories of several of the most innovative and influential impresarios of the late nineteenth century, this series reveals the circus was a uniquely American entertainment created by a rapidly expanding and industrializing nation; that it embraced and was made possible by Western imperialism; that its history was shaped by a tension between its unconventional entertainments and prevailing standards of respectability; and that its promise for ordinary people was the possibility for personal reinvention. Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, The Circus brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town, its stars were among the most famous people in the country, and multitudes of Americans gathered to see the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.
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American Experience: The Circus This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Drawing upon a vast and rich visual archive, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era w...

American Experience: The Circus This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Drawing upon a vast and rich visual archive, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era when Circus Day could shut down a town, and circus stars were among the most famous people in the country. For many Americans, the circu...American Experience: The Circus This four-hour mini-series tells the story of one of the most popular and influential forms of entertainment in American history. Drawing upon a vast and rich visual archive, The Circus follows the rise and fall of the gigantic, traveling tented railroad circus, recounting the era when Circus Day could shut down a town, and circus stars were among the most famous people in the country. For many Americans, the circus embodied the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular. Through the intertwined stories of several of the most innovative and influential impresarios of the late nineteenth century, this series reveals the circus was a uniquely American entertainment created by a rapidly expanding and industrializing nation; that it embraced and was made possible by Western imperialism; that its history was shaped by a tension between its unconventional entertainments and prevailing standards of respectability; and that its promise for ordinary people was the possibility for personal reinvention. Drawing upon a vast and richly visual archive and featuring a host of performers, historians and aficionados, The Circus brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town, its stars were among the most famous people in the country, and multitudes of Americans gathered to see the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.
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produced by Great Big Story, in Great Big Story (Atlanta, GA: CNN Newsource Sales, 2018), 2 mins

When Kate Warne first applied for a position at the Pinkerton Detective Agency, she was laughed at. Still, she persevered and soon became America’s first female detective. During her time at the agency, she uncovered a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln during a trip from Philadelphia to Baltimore. She concocte...

When Kate Warne first applied for a position at the Pinkerton Detective Agency, she was laughed at. Still, she persevered and soon became America’s first female detective. During her time at the agency, she uncovered a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln during a trip from Philadelphia to Baltimore. She concocted a plan to protect the president, one involving master disguises, bribery and sleepless nights. Legend has it that her watchful ways i...When Kate Warne first applied for a position at the Pinkerton Detective Agency, she was laughed at. Still, she persevered and soon became America’s first female detective. During her time at the agency, she uncovered a plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln during a trip from Philadelphia to Baltimore. She concocted a plan to protect the president, one involving master disguises, bribery and sleepless nights. Legend has it that her watchful ways inspired the term “private eye.”
This video is from the Frontiers collection of Great Big Stories.
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directed by Jan Turnquist, fl. 2018; produced by Rob Mast, fl. 2013, American Public Television (Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service, 2018), 27 mins

Go inside the 350-year-old home in Concord, Massachusetts where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set Little Women in 1868. With a nurturing, talented family as owners and literary giants Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as neighbors, Orchard House uniquely inspired Louisa May Alcott to...

Go inside the 350-year-old home in Concord, Massachusetts where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set Little Women in 1868. With a nurturing, talented family as owners and literary giants Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathaniel Hawthorne as neighbors, Orchard House uniquely inspired Louisa May Alcott to write a book that has never been out of print and has been translated into over 50 languages.

America: Promised Land chronicles the massive immigration patterns of ethnic groups to the United States, anchored by interviews with descendants of ancestors and geographical imagery that showcases the history of how America was populated. Reveals the epic history behind the creation of America, exploring how and...

America: Promised Land chronicles the massive immigration patterns of ethnic groups to the United States, anchored by interviews with descendants of ancestors and geographical imagery that showcases the history of how America was populated. Reveals the epic history behind the creation of America, exploring how and why our ancestors came to this country. From the Dutch living in New Amsterdam seeking the wealth offered by the fur trade, through th...America: Promised Land chronicles the massive immigration patterns of ethnic groups to the United States, anchored by interviews with descendants of ancestors and geographical imagery that showcases the history of how America was populated. Reveals the epic history behind the creation of America, exploring how and why our ancestors came to this country. From the Dutch living in New Amsterdam seeking the wealth offered by the fur trade, through the English Quakers who fled persecution.
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A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries - and path of promise toward the American dream - Black colleges and universities have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field. They have been unapologetically Black for more than 150 years. For the first time e...

A haven for Black intellectuals, artists and revolutionaries - and path of promise toward the American dream - Black colleges and universities have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field. They have been unapologetically Black for more than 150 years. For the first time ever, their story is told.

A historical documentary on George Caleb Bingham, a respected early American portrait painter. His reputation was forever damaged by his choice to make a courageous stand following the Civil War. Upon his death, his legacy was scattered, his work written off as quaint, and nearly forgotten entirely.

A historical documentary on George Caleb Bingham, a respected early American portrait painter. His reputation was forever damaged by his choice to make a courageous stand following the Civil War. Upon his death, his legacy was scattered, his work written off as quaint, and nearly forgotten entirely.

David William Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University and Director of the Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. His works include: Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory & the American Civil War;...

David William Blight is Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University and Director of the Gilder-Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. His works include: Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory; Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory & the American Civil War; and A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation.

directed by Linda Robertson, fl. 2016; produced by Due North Productions (Trumansburg, NY: Due North Productions, 2016), 1 hour 12 mins

Today, Harriet Tubman is an icon for the struggle for freedom in the United States. Her story might have been lost to history except for one woman, Sarah Bradford, who agreed to write her friend's biography. But who was she? Why did she say, "Yes," when others called her plan to make a heroine of a black woman and...

Today, Harriet Tubman is an icon for the struggle for freedom in the United States. Her story might have been lost to history except for one woman, Sarah Bradford, who agreed to write her friend's biography. But who was she? Why did she say, "Yes," when others called her plan to make a heroine of a black woman and slave a "quixotic attempt," doomed to failure from the start. Working together, these two indomitable women, one born a slave and a he...Today, Harriet Tubman is an icon for the struggle for freedom in the United States. Her story might have been lost to history except for one woman, Sarah Bradford, who agreed to write her friend's biography. But who was she? Why did she say, "Yes," when others called her plan to make a heroine of a black woman and slave a "quixotic attempt," doomed to failure from the start. Working together, these two indomitable women, one born a slave and a hero of the Civil War, the other born into a privileged New York family, gave voice to their shared vision of the New Republic. Little has been known of the remarkable Sarah Bradford. Until now.
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